Ichigo and Rukia hide in the sewers along with the boy who was supposed to marry Rurichiyo in one of those EVIL arranged marriages. After a while, they come on up out of the sewers to meet Captain Amagai. Cue the one-on-one battle: Ichigo vs. Amagai.
Soi Fon got a small role in this episode, and sadly that was probably the extent that we’ll see her until a later arc. Karen Strassman is the BOMB. Her voice acting for Soi Fon is some of the best in any anime, and it’s a shame it gets somewhat unnoticed after all these years.
I believe the original title I had for this episode was “Soi Fon kicks Ichigo’s butt,” but I thought it needed more emphasis. This is a Reggie Fils-Aime amount of ass-kicking going on here by Soi Fon. She completely embarrasses Ichigo while taking him to school in a battle that should have been stopped because Ichigo was clearly down for the count. If not for Rukia, Soi Fon may have completely destroyed Ichigo.
And why was she doing this? Well, she and her Squad 2 were working for Kumoi because, out of naivete, she thought that she was helping the Kasumioji clan. Meanwhile, Ichigo’s trying to break up this arranged marriage, because, as I always say, arranged marriages are EVIL!!1! And it appears that Rurichiyo herself has been possessed, meaning that the person he said the big spiel to about rescuing may not have ever even heard it.
Hey, this is fun stuff. I’d go for a spinoff of Bleach where it’s just Soi Fon kicking ass. She deserves the spotlight more. Her character is so unique because she is always angry all the time and she is 100% invested in anything she’s told to do. She tells Old Man Yama that she’s going to capture “Kurosaki and Kuchiki,” while Squad 3 Captain Shusuke Amagai volunteers to jump head over feet into this situation. Izuru tells him that Kibune’s acting weird; Amagai pretty much laughs it off. Uh oh. This is headed somewhere that isn’t good for Izuru.
Best girl of the episode: Soi Fon (10) (the fifth member of the double-digits club! Can you name the other four?)
Arranged marriages are EVIL!!1! That’s the number-one takeaway from this episode. As usual, an arranged marriage is painted out to be the spawn of Satan, as Rurichiyo gets married to Kanogi. She has a bizarre ride through this episode, starting out all sad because she caused Uryu and Chad to get hurt, then sobbing it out with Ichigo, then turning a knife on Ichigo and going back to the Soul Society, then turning into this robot that has no emotions at all as she suffers through her evil arranged marriage. All the while, the evil Kumoi is loving it.
That sappy music that became in vogue during the Arrancar arc is played during Ichigo’s talk with Rurichiyo, which is so sappy that it’s hard to believe it’s in Bleach. It’s not bad, it’s just… not fitting in with the rest of the show.
At the very end of the episode, when Ichigo goes to SAVE Rurichiyo from her EVIL arranged marriage, someone shows up who I have a lot of affection for. She wins best girl despite only showing up for a few seconds.
You can tell this episode is filler by one thing: the wisdom of Old Man Yamamoto. Here’s a guy who’s wrong about everything, and often makes very stupid errors. Yet in this episode, he comes up with a brilliant idea. When Captain Amagai suggests the squads work together, he gets told off by Mayuri and Kenpachi. But then Yamamoto decides he’s going to test the squads by creating some fake Menos. The squads all start competing with each other to try to be the first to defeat the Menos, and act in complete chaos. That proves the point to Old Man Yama, who now realizes that Amagai’s suggestion was a good one. Amagai then leads the squads to defeat the fake Menos.
But Kibune is plotting something evil, and he proves Izuru Kira to be one of the least useful Lieutenants in all the Soul Society, and that’s saying something, given that Sasukibe is still alive and that Tetsuzaemon Iba isn’t a Captain yet. Kira is completely baffled at what to do nearly every time we see the guy’s face. Maybe Kibune’s evil, but Kira is clueless.
Tommy A. Phillips 